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Birds · Animal sounds

Corn crake sounds

Crex crex

This page collects 2 free recordings of the Corn crake (Crex crex), including its song, made in Sweden.

Listen to the Corn crake

Song · Herrebrotippen, Norrköping municipality, Östergötland…
0:37CC BY-SA 4.0by Robert PetersenWikimedia Commons
0:37
Derkacz Crex crex sound July 2021 Obserwacje BirdNET - Derkacz - 2021-07-04 19 42 49
0:12

Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.

About the Corn crake

The Corn crake is a bird in the family Rallidae (order Gruiformes). Its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is “least concern”. Adults have a wingspan of about 50 cm and weigh around 13 g.

What does the Corn crake sound like?

Most birds have two kinds of vocalisation: songs, which are learned or innate phrases delivered mainly in spring and summer, and calls – brief contact, alarm and begging notes heard all year round. Listening for both helps with identification.

The recordings here are labelled as song. Listen for differences in rhythm, pitch and repetition – the spectrum display makes it easy to see whether a sound is a pure whistle (a thin line), a harsh call (a broad band) or a trill (rapid repeated marks).

From Wikipedia

The corn crake, corncrake or landrail (Crex crex) is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the Northern Hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The strong bill is flesh-toned, the iris is pale brown, and the legs and feet are pale grey. Juveniles are similar in plumage to adults, and downy chicks are black, as with all rails. There are no subspecies, although individuals from the east of the breeding range tend to be slightly paler than their western counterparts. The male's call is a loud krek krek, from which the scientific name is derived. The corn crake is larger than its closest relative, the African crake, which shares its wintering range; that species is also darker-plumaged, and has a plainer face.

More from the family Rallidae

Frequently asked questions

What does a Corn crake sound like?

You can hear 2 recordings of the Corn crake on this page, including its song. Most birds have two kinds of vocalisation: songs, which are learned or innate phrases delivered mainly in spring and summer, and calls – brief contact, alarm and begging notes heard all year round.

Is the Corn crake endangered?

The IUCN Red List classifies the Corn crake as “least concern”.

What family does the Corn crake belong to?

The Corn crake (Crex crex) belongs to the family Rallidae in the order Gruiformes.

Sources & credits